In search of balloons

Today marks the end of 17 days of Canberra's Enlighten Festival. Over the last 9 days more than 30 hot air balloons have been ready to launch over the lake each day at sunrise - as part of Enlighten's Balloon Spectacular. We've tried 3 mornings to see the balloons in flight - but without success; apparently the winds were too strong or in the wrong direction on these days!

But I did enjoy this beautiful sunrise ...………..

 Old RG Menzies turns his back on the sunrise each morning …..

 This morning we had one last chance to see the balloons in flight, on our regular early Sunday morning date climbing Mt Ainslie. 

 BUT the balloons didn't launch this morning!! APART from this one...... thank you CBR!!

The most appealing balloon of this year's festival - the Beagle Maximus - was waiting for ages in front of Old Parliament House, ready to fly. But it never launched today! 

As a break from balloon watching we took Ollie to the German Club last Friday night. He got hooked on pork knuckle during his Munich stay at Christmas so we wanted to make sure he knew where to find the same dish here in his hometown. 

A great dish for a growing boy!!  Ollie is great company over any kind of meal; we had a lively conversation about a huge range of topics - he has a better understanding of global politics, history and complex social issues than most adults do - as well as having a better appetite.

Abi

Abi doesn't enjoy having her photo taken - but I managed to sneak in a few shots of her having some end of Summer holiday fun here at Campbell in the last week or so ….. all pictures taken with her agreement!!!

Days with Granny and Grandpa involve doing things you may not always attempt at home!

A bit of swan whispering ……...

and making your own fruit juice mixtures …….

….. and growing vegetables.

Canberra Summer

We have discovered the perfect evening picnic spot - only a 5 minute walk away - on Aspen Island in Lake Burley Griffin. We can watch the sun go down over a drink and picnic food and admire life on our beautiful lake.

We even have our favourite, perfectly positioned table on the island, and it's always there for us!!

This courageous couple have a challenging year ahead - so it's extra special to have magic times like this together on beautiful evenings like this.

And it's hard to beat a setting like this ……...

The only distraction on our Aspen Island picnics is the Carillon sounding its bells every quarter hour - and it's LOUD …...

This is Spring

There's a hint of Spring in the air and I am looking at the old gardens of Reid with a bit of envy these days on our (almost) daily walk to the shops in Civic.

Now we have no garden of our own I miss the late winter burst of hellebores under our big Claret Ash in the front garden, the big showy Camellia Japonicas and all our blossom trees. So I really enjoy seeing so many familiar flowers in the old gardens around where we live now.

 ........including the common old Prunus Nigra....

We love our regular walks around the lake too - not the whole lake of course - just the Kings Ave Bridge to Commonwealth Bridge bit (about 5.5klms we reckon).

Now this rather spectacular underpass (Bowen Place Crossing) has been constructed we can do the bridge to bridge walk without crossing any roads. The only scary things we have to watch out for are crazy black swans, mad cyclists and (usually well behaved) Segway riders. 

Spring is busting out all around the lake too....... including the wattles (sunshine in a bottle).......

 .. and the hardy Hardenbergia - which makes a lovely flavoured tea too I have discovered!

I miss the Manchurian Pear tree blossoms on our nature strip in Mawson..... but hey it's not like I can't enjoy these beautiful trees growing all around me now!

This tree was full of beautiful red-rumped parrots (grass parrots) feasting off the blossoms....
But Spring in the air also means erratic weather here in Canberra: 17oC and beautiful one day and 12oC and cold and windy the next. By the time we got back from our lake walk yesterday the skies over ASIO headquarters were looking just as forbidding as the building does.  It rained all afternoon and even started to snow (briefly) on our Mt Ainslie in full view of our living room windows. ..... so Spring is maybe not quite here yet....

But still great weather for celebrating Jody's birthday with another wonderful feast at Happy's in Civic, a family favourite of ours - and surely one of Canberra's oldest restaurants (established by Gavin's grandfather in 1962!!). Happy birthday gorgeous girl!!

Moving Mountains

Claire's solo exhibition "Moving Mountains" was officially opened at the Stanley Street  Gallery in Darlinghurst this weekend. Needless to say her mountains (paintings, prints and drawings) looked beautiful in this jewel of a gallery in inner city Sydney.

The gallery owners Liza and Merilyn gave Claire wonderful feedback (all deserved) on the quality of her work in this exhibition. She is their "star"! Six works were sold at the opening - always a good sign. We enjoyed the very relaxed vibe of the opening afternoon, especially being able to catch up with people we knew and interesting people we were introduced to - and feeling so proud of Claire's enormous achievements as an artist.

We had great fun with Claire over three days in Sydney, including meeting some of her lovely friends at the Lord Roberts in Darlinghurst, and sharing a wonderful dinner on Friday night at the buzzy Riley Street Garage,

where we met the lovely Rachel (a dear friend of Claire's and a surprise visitor to Sydney this weekend).......

and LOVED our choice of degustation menu. The fresh smokey soy truffle oysters were a perfect starter. 

And the Riley Street dessert platter was a perfect way to end (with a lovely bottle of Inkwell Mclaren Vale shiraz.

We love our Barzura at Coogee - the most perfect beachside breakfast spot......

We finished a perfect weekend with a slow morning at Coogee Beach - at its most perfect too (sigh) .....

And back in Canberra, Rob and I went for a late afternoon stroll to the lake - just for a stretch out after the long drive. It was pretty perfect in Canberra today too, obviously...... love where we live at Campbell!

two weeks

Some highlights of the last two weeks?.....

• Two lovely days with the girls here at the apartment, doing lots of drawing, eating, chatting, park playing and admiring the Merino ram's head! (Wayne's present to Abi who just loves bones!)

• Finally making the decision to start hanging some of our art work (it's very hard to bang the first nail into a pristine wall - have I got it right??)

• A couple of happy catch ups with friends and family, celebrating our new home - which in turn makes it feel even more like home!

• We found some stools we like in Sydney; they look at home here we think...... 

• With the arrival of the internet the lovely Andrew was able to connect up our blinds, lights & A/C to an App we can control via iPad or iPhone. It's much more comfortable now sitting in the winter garden and being able to control the light (we'd never complain about too much sun on a winter's day though would we?).

• We're walking every day, either into Civic (via Glebe Park) to pick up our grocery bits and pieces, or around the lake. We did the East Basin walk this morning, in perfect winter sunshine (although there was still thick frost lying the shady bits). The lake never fails to delight no matter what the conditions.

•  And nice to get a good selfie of both of us!

H