The apartment is now feeling very quiet and deserted after the Easter visit festivities. Despite the four days of perfect Summer weather the clouds and thunder have have rolled in and we've even had some heavy rain showers.
But last Friday (Good Friday) was just perfect. We all welcomed Ros and Pete early afternoon and headed down to our fave picnic spot on Aspen island for a sunset picnic and a few celebratory glasses of bubbles.
Maxie was feeling pretty good all Easter even after her chemo date on Thursday - so she was fully up for letting the good times roll this Easter visit .....
Sunset views don't last long... But this man always enjoys a water view no matter how dark or light!
Saturday morning we took a walk through our favourite suburb (Reid) to Sonoma in Braddon for a top notch bakery breakfast (and "not cross" buns to die for). Pete rode Rob's bike and repeatedly declared his admiration for being able to ride a "good bike" (at last).
In the early afternoon we squeezed in a quick visit to our fabulous (but crowded today) Arboretum - and Rob captured some precious sister pics in the beautiful Bonsai collection area there.
But we had a date to keep - an Easter family get together at the National Capital Brewery at Dairy Flat for some quality time and an early meal together with the brewery's famous Brodburgers.
But first the girls had to enjoy catching up with faraway baby Vincent's progress (he's four months old now and adorable).
Then we had to admire Abi's new Doc Martens - can you get any better than bright pink patent leather Doc Martens??
before beer and Brodburger time in the (crowded) Brewery courtyard...…..
In many ways this will be an historic photo - as Jody is reintroducing gluten into her diet (on doctor's orders, for interim testing purposes) - so Brodburgers and brewery hot dogs and crispy chips are all unaccustomed treats - even though they make her feel really yuk afterwards!
But no dietary problems for Abi .....
The other P family were not with us this Easter so after our fun afternoon with the young ones at Dairy Flat we took Ros and Pete for an evening stroll along the beautiful Kingston Foreshore - and the spot where the other P family are staking out a claim for the future!
We inflicted our usual early Sunday morning walk (pant pant) up Mt Ainslie on Ros - who coped much better with the climb than we did I think.
... before we all met up again at our local fave Intra for breakfast (famous for its kimchee and provolone cheese toaties).
Sunday afternoon we took it easy watching some pretty special movies (one French and one British) at Maxie and Rod's and indulged ourselves with more glasses of bubbles and seasonal treats (it's Easter after all).
We started the day today with another early morning walk to the bakery and finished off our fabulous four days together with a big breakfast here before Ros and Pete had to head off back to Geelong.
We all felt super lucky to have had this time together - it's so good we are now living much closer to each other. Thank you Ros and Pete!
School holidays are here - the weather's still warm, Easter's on its way and the days seem endless.
We had a lovely first day of the holidays with Ella and Abi: our favourite Kouign-Amann pastries at Sonoma Bakery in Braddon, an hour of board games (their choice) inside the apartment, a picnic lunch in the park and then playtime in amongst their favourite trees on the perimeter of our Hassett Park.
Ella is growing so tall now (taller than me!).
Ella won't be able to do this too much longer. Her legs are so long now ......….
Picnic and playtime over and we head back to our Saint Germain.....
A few pics to show progress with our Autumn leaves - view from our front wall of windows …...
And a nice pic of me, taken by Rob, in the garden of a friend of ours at picturesque Pialligo. I love that tall cherry laurel hedge bordering their trimmed box garden.
We've just enjoyed a wonderful Sydney short stay (it's harder to do anything longer now we can't stay at our own place in Coogee).
We've decided we like staying in Surry Hills for our Sydney stopovers. Such a lively, arty, grungy inner city suburb and only a 5 minute bus ride to the city. After parking the car and unloading we were able to make a quick trip into the CBD yesterday afternoon - to conduct some (jewellery) business at Courtesy of the Artist in the beautiful Strand Arcade in Pitt St...……..
before walking down to Chinatown to sample some of the scrumptious Emperor's Garden pork buns (and my favourite glutinous rice cakes filled with red bean paste)………………...
We spent a fascinating hour or so at the nearby Powerhouse Museum checking out the beautiful Akira Isogawa 25year retrospective before walking back to Surry Hills (a long and hilly walk!)
Luckily we had about an hour to rest and get ready for our big night out: drinks with Judy and Jurgen at the very glam Champagne Bar at the Sofitel Darling Harbour ……………….
….. then dinner at The Ternery at the Novotel before heading to the Lyric Theatre at Pyrmont - and our great dress circle seats for "Saturday Night Fever" - the musical. We enjoyed the show; music and dance just fantastic, but not as dark (or as funny) as the movie. But still a great show!
We caught the light rail back to Central Station after the show - a first for us - now we can't wait until our new light rail comes on line in Canberra over Easter!!!
Breakfast at Bill's on Crown St didn't work out this morning as there was too long a wait to get a table. So we walked the laid back streets of this rapidly gentrifying suburb until we came across the bountiful Bourke St Bakery - enjoying great coffee and almond croissants in the company of a steady stream of hipsters, tradies and arty types.
Back home again now; what a fun-packed 24 hours! Thank you Sydney.
I made some tiny advances (like really basic) in understanding the new Fujifilm X-T3 this week - and decided to try for some low light, more moody shots to test out my exposure compensation functions etc (so many function buttons to get familiar with!).
Front window view at 5.45pm (cloudy day) on April 4...….. and a dusting of Autumn colour on our Hassett Park trees.........
Apartment interior view same time of day ........
Just testing focus capacity in dim light (it's pretty good I think!) .……...
I wanted this shot to look really moody! .........
We've had a very social week with lots of lunches, (French) movies, and coffee outings too. It culminated last night in another dinner out at the Kingston Foreshore to celebrate Maddie L's 22nd birthday.
This is not my favourite part of the Foreshore - but I thought it looked very pretty last night in the dusk light (6.30pm) looking back towards the Carillon in the distance. Well done Fujifilm X-T3!
Two gorgeous sisters: Maddie the birthday girl and Sophie just a few hours off leaving for Vietnam on her ANU study tour.
Group shot at Le Rustica Kingston Foreshore - not bad for such low light!
Happy birthday Maddie! - glad my camera was up to capturing your birthday celebration last night.
The girls were here for a sleepover at the weekend. They seemed to enjoy a change of routine and the way the rules are not quite as tight over here. Like …… getting the paints out whenever you feel like it, eating chocolate Easter eggs when it's not even Easter, going to bed way later than usual...…..
Sunday dawned clear and COLD, a real Canberra Autumn morning - probably our first COLD morning for the year (but no not like London COLD!). A great morning for some park play.
The girls love our Hassett Park. Ella can't resist creating beautiful poses - with perfect control!
I love the way her pose echoes the Y shaped frames in the front courtyard of the newly built Koben Apartment building in the background.
Josh and Jody joined us mid morning for coffee at our fave local Intra.
Giving them a chance to sample Intra's kimchi (and provolone cheese) jaffles. They now understand our passion for them!
I took these pics with my brand new camera - the Fujifilm X-T3 with its 18-135 f3.5-5.6 zoom lens. It's gonna take me WEEKS to work out the way to use it in a smart way. It's a lot more hi tech than my 6 year old and fairly battle scarred little Fujifilm X20!
Maxie was feeling pretty good all Easter even after her chemo date on Thursday - so she was fully up for letting the good times roll this Easter visit .....
Sunset views don't last long... But this man always enjoys a water view no matter how dark or light!
Saturday morning we took a walk through our favourite suburb (Reid) to Sonoma in Braddon for a top notch bakery breakfast (and "not cross" buns to die for). Pete rode Rob's bike and repeatedly declared his admiration for being able to ride a "good bike" (at last).
In the early afternoon we squeezed in a quick visit to our fabulous (but crowded today) Arboretum - and Rob captured some precious sister pics in the beautiful Bonsai collection area there.
But we had a date to keep - an Easter family get together at the National Capital Brewery at Dairy Flat for some quality time and an early meal together with the brewery's famous Brodburgers.
Then we had to admire Abi's new Doc Martens - can you get any better than bright pink patent leather Doc Martens??
before beer and Brodburger time in the (crowded) Brewery courtyard...…..
In many ways this will be an historic photo - as Jody is reintroducing gluten into her diet (on doctor's orders, for interim testing purposes) - so Brodburgers and brewery hot dogs and crispy chips are all unaccustomed treats - even though they make her feel really yuk afterwards!
But no dietary problems for Abi .....
The other P family were not with us this Easter so after our fun afternoon with the young ones at Dairy Flat we took Ros and Pete for an evening stroll along the beautiful Kingston Foreshore - and the spot where the other P family are staking out a claim for the future!
We inflicted our usual early Sunday morning walk (pant pant) up Mt Ainslie on Ros - who coped much better with the climb than we did I think.
... before we all met up again at our local fave Intra for breakfast (famous for its kimchee and provolone cheese toaties).
