Three days

We've just enjoyed three stunning days with dear family and friends. ....

... starting Friday when we headed off to Rosedale (early), leaving us plenty of time to check out the local wildlife (and my best picture ever of a Rainbow Lorikeet) just off the verandah of Judy and Jurgen's Rosedale property.......

.. before making our way to our much anticipated lunch date - at The River Restaurant on Church St in Moruya. The restaurant is in an unremarkable looking old timber cottage but the interior is light and bright with great views of the Moruya River and the mountains beyond. The food was fantastic - locally sourced French cooking - with very refined technique and fabulous local ingredients.

 My darling sister Maxie and I both chose the crab and celeriac risotto, fennel, champagne veloute for entree.

 And we both loved the pan fried salmon, crushed new potato, lobster veloute, Beurre cafe de Paris for mains (such a tough choice between that and the confit of duck (with polenta chips!!)

 We were all agreed on our choice of dessert: lime curd meringue tartlet with vanilla ice cream (sigh) - YUM!

 We loved our lunch at the River Moruya - and we're already planning a return visit - and all a very achievable day's outing from Canberra (especially when Rob is so prepared to do all the driving).

 The Moruya River on a cloudy Winter afternoon ....

 Ros arrived, as planned, on Friday night, although none of us was happy about the hour and a half delay on her flight from Melbourne (grrrr!). Although Ros could only stay for the weekend we were so happy to see her and made sure we saw as much of each other as we could, while she was here.

 Claire and the boys joined us for breakfast on Saturday morning - a lovely surprise - and we were treated to an almost hour long concert by Ollie who appreciated Rob's beautiful acoustic guitar enough to give us this impromptu extended performance. His playing is jaw dropping amazing - no doubt because of the hours he spends playing, although not always on an acoustic guitar. This boy is going far!

 We did coffee and lunch at Sonoma Braddon and then dinner at Maxie and Rod's on Saturday night. We talked non stop, facetimed with family (who had some amazing news), did more eating, and barely had enough time to watch a recent movie download. We had high hopes of "Aftermath" but eventually decided it was a bit melodramatic and a wasted opportunity of a movie (in our humble opinions).

We took Ros to the Conservatory Restaurant at Canberra's fabulous Arboretum for breakfast this morning - a great choice with its spectacular views, stunning building and great food!

 And we had enough time for a walk afterwards through the beautiful Himalayan cedar Forest ......

 and a drive up to the summit of Mt Ainslie to get a big picture view of Canberra and the Captain Cook Memorial Jet (just beside Commonwealth Bridge) - finally back in action after months under repair for "technical difficulties".

 Unfortunately Ros had to leave soon after lunch. Such a short space of time to enjoy each other's company but very much appreciated all the same! We loved having this chance for some sister (and close family) time together especially because Maxie is starting to feel well enough again to enjoy company and some good times after a pretty horrendous month of not being well at all!

Winter walking

We went walking today - on another perfect Canberra winter day - with our dear friends David and Irene.  We started at the National Rock Garden on the Western foreshore of Lake Burley Griffin. The rock garden was launched in 2011 and "celebrates" rocks and minerals that make a significant contribution to "the nation's landscapes, heritage and prosperity". 

It was so much more interesting than I expected it to be (really!).

 From here it wasn't far to walk to the highest point of our spectacular (but still very new) National Arboretum.

 Why is the entry walk way to the Arboretum's main building almost devoid of trees??

 Such an apt installation in this setting: "wide brown land"

 But we need to walk among some TREES at the Arboretum...........

So we picked the historic Cork Oak Plantation (Burley Griffin imported the acorns from Portugal in 1917 and the forest was then established by Thomas Weston) as a worthy walking trail.

We did the Cork Plantation loop and then emerged in the Himalayan Cedar Forest - and beautiful views towards the lake and the city

 I'm not sure what I think of the (temporary) "Warm Tree" installations..... There is something wrong with the scale I think???

 We started with breakfast at Campbell (our Sunday fave Intra) and ended with lunch at Campbell too (Knead Bakery). By chance we met up with more lovely (Inner North) friends .......

 And did our best to talk them into moving into the area too!

 This pair have already made the decision!

Winter play

It's mid winter here but we're enjoying beautiful clear light days with big blue skies. There are frosty starts to the day and the air is cold and crisp but our winter sunlight is amazing!

The school holidays are over now. School starts again tomorrow, so our holiday fun with the girls is finished for now.

They're very easy to please when they visit, quiet hours painting and crafting, making and eating food (and supporting our local Knead Bakery) and burning up energy in our Hassett Park.

Nine hours a week of Gymnastics practice makes this look easy (even though it's hard to get a proper grip on those steel bars)......

 But Abi's skills are building too ..... although she is resisting formal classes at the moment .....

 These were rare moments that I was able to capture without them being too aware of the camera......

Two years

It's been a little over two years since we moved into our new apartment in Campbell, so I thought it was time for a bit of a blog update.  Over the last 12 months we've spent a lot more of our time in Canberra - and I think our apartment is looking a lot more "lived in" as a result. The winter garden is one of our favourite day time spots in the cooler weather........ 

 And in the last two years I've worked out what plants will survive out here too (they have to be hardy)!

 We've finally found a Persian rug for the living room in the colour tones we wanted (and the right size).

A few months back we partnered MinniePwerle with a drawing of Alice in the Outback on the dining room wall - we think we did the right thing! 

We have only just got around to finishing off this little room in the last few weeks: Rob's study nook. We started with a beautiful chair - genuine Eames!, cleaned up his clutter of paper and files and added some favourite pics...........

The Coogee sofabed is now doing duty in the third bedroom - its Rob's favourite space for guitar practice.

 The second bedroom has even had a spruce up with the addition of Claire's work on the wall...........

 I don't think our bedroom is finished yet. But this beautiful old chest of drawers with its original brass handles is a recent addition. 

Our bedroom is a nice calm space and our new floor rug has made it more cosy … but I think it needs more art work and ........ a beautiful chair would be nice!

We couldn't be happier living here in Campbell. It's been a good move!