Sculpture on Clyde

We were able to to spend a night at beautiful Rosedale with Judy and Jurgen this week. Although Maggie (the Jack Russell) was not there to give us her usual welcome the Brown Pigeons were (as well as the usual Lorikeets, King Parrots and Kookaburras).

After touching base with the birdlife we set out from Rosedale yesterday afternoon, and headed north towards Bawley Point, the site of Terry Snow's magnificent property, Willinga Park, the outdoor venue for this year's Sculpture on Clyde event. 

There were over 50 sculptures spread over an expansive area of this amazing $100,000,000 property, although about a quarter of the works belong to the property's permanent collection, a massive investment on the part of Terry Snow, the man behind the development of Canberra's beautiful new airport and business park.

  

 We loved the three works by Tobias Bennett: The Elephant …….

 the Feather ……..

and his Much Like Water ……..

 I thought Greg John's Horizon Figure was sited well!

 This one won the Acquisition Prize for Sculpture on Clyde (Haruyuki Uchida's - Dance)

 We thought this was a pretty inspiring way to use rusty chicken wire ……... 

We loved our visit to Willinga Park and our far off glimpses of the main house and construction under way on the various equestrian centre projects. It would be fabulous to see the whole property - but I'm not sure we'll ever be invited.

We picked up some fresh fish from Finer Foods in Cranbrook Road, Bateman's Bay on the way back to Rosedale and some WONDERFUL fresh oysters from the Oyster Shed, overlooking this view of the Clyde River, over the bridge from Bateman's Bay township.

 Judy cooked up a feast for us last night... the very best ingredients and her cooking flair producing a wonderful meal we won't forget in a hurry!

We woke to a cold morning in Rosedale today but a cloudless sky and bright sunshine - perfect weather for a beach walk.

And on the way home we were able to take in the Indoor Exhibition for Sculpture on Clyde - where Maxie's three beautiful works took pride of place at the entry to the exhibition space. We made sure our votes counted in the People's Choice Award!

 Thank you Judy and Jurgen for this fabulous Rosedale stay - looks like we have another arts event to add to our must do list for next year!

Ella's Gym Comp

Ella participated in her first Gymnastic competition this afternoon. She's never wanted to compete before, in all the years she's been doing classes. It seems that changing clubs (this year) has resulted in a real change in her attitude.

All the ACT clubs were competing and a few others from outside the region. Ella competed at Level 5 (it seems to go all the way up to Level 10!). 

Part of the fun of competing is wearing the special club leotard, with all the trimmings...….

 Ella had to compete in a floor routine (to music)……..

 and on the vaults (too fast for me to photograph), and the bars ………..

 she nailed the bars …….

 and finally the beam - quite scary to watch especially as one of the other competitors had a fall off the beam and broke her ankle, not long before Ella took her turn ………

 Ella did very well in the comp, winning a ribbon for her overall performance in her Level 5 group, although we didn't understand what all the coloured ribbons meant!

 But then we found out she came first in the Vaults (with a score of 9.8)!

 … and a place winner in all the other categories ……..

She came fourth overall, in the ACT club championships and took great delight in counting up her massive haul of ribbons!

I think Ella will feel quite positive about Gym comps in future - she looked to be having great fun today!!

Birthdays weekend

So many good things came together this weekend: Ros and Pete stayed over a few days on their way down to Geelong (they've said goodbye to Sandy Beach), Maxie started to feel better after a horrible week with a cold, and Angus and Jody both had big birthdays to celebrate. It was super special to enjoy the celebrations together, all 14 of us, on Saturday at Josh and Jody's.

 We had to take this shot to record how big these boys are growing!

In between soccer games outside with the boys, Ella gave us a great solo gig on her Tenor Sax..... Is there anything this girl can't do?

 And Claire produced a cheesecake birthday cake (yes, made of cheese) - quite stunning and amazing!

 Angus turned 12 this week. Beautiful boy!

 And this gorgeous girl (Jody) celebrated one of those big birthdays too!!

 Two gorgeous girls in a wonderful decade of their lives ……………..

Canberra was pretty mild by August standards for Ros and Pete's stay. In between family lunches, brunches and birthday celebrations we did lots of walking (mainly to the new Sanoma Bakery in Braddon) and coffee drinking. I thought we'd see the sun today - going by the sunrise ……..

 but it wasn't to last long …..

 .. but that didn't stop us heading for the lake for our morning walk …….

.. and a final coffee (and kimchi jaffle) from our new local, INTRA......

 We're looking forward to seeing Ros and Pete set up in Geelong. That's only one day's drive away for us!! 

Science Week

These lucky girls get to do their Science Week investigations at home under carefully organised conditions ………. bless Jody's teacher background!

Abi made her own chef's hat as the girls were investigating the impact of using different sugar substitutes in a standard butter cake mixture; so some cooking was going to be involved.

 The girls worked in a very amicable partnership (for most of the time).

 Lots of measuring and labelling was involved.

 And a touch of levity!

 Grandpa even found he had a role .. all in the name of science …...

We all enjoyed the taste test! And then recording all the observations and testing them against the hypotheses. These girls really got it!!!