We joined thousands of Canberrans before sunrise this morning to get our first sighting of Patricia Piccini's Skywhalepapa - the second sculpture (balloon) in her skywhale series for the National Gallery's contemporary art collection.
This was how Skywhalepapa looked at our first sighting - on the ground, slowly inflating - taking all of 40 minutes to fill with the hot air it needs to get aloft (cue: all those Canberra is "full of hot air" jokes!).
and nearly there ........ in all his glory ...
and a close up view at last ......
And finally, up and away, but only for a short ride today (we didn't have the right wind on the lake this morning for a full flight).
Skywhalepapa is the spouse partner for our original Skywhale - completed in 2013 for Canberra's 100th birthday celebration. Skywhalepapa is a nurturing, loving figure - looking after all 9 offsprings of the new skywhale family - a perfect partner for the eternally maternal, original Skywhale.
Our beautiful original Skywhale was there this morning too ..... we hadn't seen her in a while .... She was very controversial in her day - but now (almost) everyone has fallen in love with her .....
And then a beautiful skywhale dance began, right in front of our eyes .....
We had front row seats for this lovely show (although Rob was wishing those seats were heated - he was a bit under-dressed for the occasion) ........
It was the ultimate feel good event with live music (composed especially for the launch) a children's choir and "skywhale croissants" for everyone, created and baked by our own Three Mills Bakery ("a cone shaped purple wheat croissant filled with honey milk custard and plum jam and topped with freeze-dried raspberry and puffed grain meringue")... and free for everyone at the launch!
We loved the skywhale dance, just as the sun rose to the East ..........
As we drove back home afterwards around our side of the lake we saw lots of people (including kayakers) out trying to get a glimpse of the balloons at the launch site - it must have been so disappointing for them not to see them fly on this perfect Canberra morning ...
Another lovely event this week was Jurgen's birthday lunch, hosted by Jennie and Wayne at Murrumbateman. On request Jennie had made Jurgen a German Puffer cake, to end off a beautiful meal.
Happy birthday Jurgen. We loved your cake!
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