March highlights

March brings on our favourite season in Canberra - the light softens (as does the temperature), the blue of the sky is brighter, birds are feasting on an abundance of seeds and the mood is celebratory in amongst all this beauty - in a very local kinda way - given how awful the news is around the rest of the world.

We all had a rude awakening about the effect of the rest of the world when our fave local live music venue (The Dissent Bar & Cafe) was closed down one recent Friday night because of the allegation of "hate speech" in its political poster display on the walls inside. There was a huge police presence and a comprehensive investigation (!!) before the police eventually decided the posters were (harmless) examples of political satire (anti-Trump) and not racist at all (!!). An alarming example of how free speech, artistic expression (and common sense) are all under attack in the current climate.

A week or so after the police closed it down (on its busiest night of the week) we were there to see Angus perform with Body Shirt.... an awesome high energy gig - and no police in sight!

The French Film Festival is another March highlight for us. We've signed up for a 6 film program and so far we've loved the films we've seen. Living where we do we can walk to the Palace at New Acton to see the films and even catch the tail end of the lakeside Enlighten Festival (also in March) on the way home.

Abi, Josh and Jody have been busy most weekends this month with pony events. A big one involved a trip to Goulburn where Abi and Sammy competed in two events. They're a beautiful jumping team, especially on those days when Sammy is feeling calm about the venue. For some reason he wasn't feeling as calm about the event in Goulburn. It may have had something to do with how crowded and noisy it was, with helicopters landing near by and all sorts of other distractions. All good experience though for horse and rider.

We spent some time on the Canberra Day public holiday, in a lovely calm way, with Abi, Owen and Sammy doing some strolling around the beautiful Freshford property together.

Afterwards we enjoyed a family dinner, hosted by Josh and Jody, to celebrate Canberra's 103rd birthday (that was the excuse anyway!). 

This little interlude with Abi and a random (wild) magpie reminded us of the days when she knew every bird and insect in their garden and had names for them all!

We came across this gang of cockatoos on our walk into Braddon the other morning stripping a Chinese Pistachio bare of of its early Autumn seed growth.

We (inadvertently) chose to visit Koto (near old Parliament House) for a fabulous meal on the night of  Canberra's lakeside Skyfire celebration on the 14th March. While we were enjoying delicious Japanese food and the thrill of seeing Rod out and about with his loved ones, outside there were thousands and thousands of people settling around the lake ready to enjoy the birthday fireworks spectacular.

It made for a very memorable night, not only for the sense of occasion and the beautiful food, but also how difficult it was to navigate our way out of that place once the night was over, due to the huge crowds and traffic jams (Rob and I walked home!).

March has also seen Ella settling into Uni student life. We've been lucky to have extended lunches with her occasionally over the past month too and its been lovely to hear all about the huge new (sometimes overwhelming) world opening up to her.

Today was the last day of Canberra's Balloon Spectacular. Rob and I made the effort to get going early so we could see the balloons rising as the sun came up in the East. It's a pretty spectacular sight!

How lucky are we to live here in this beautiful city!

Corellas, cars, red moons, seafood, Sydney

With Autumn just around the corner a lot of our local trees are going to seed. We got this great close up view of a bunch of Corellas (a sub-species of Cockatoos) the other morning, feeding off the juicy fruit of a Pistachio tree in one of our local parks.

We're getting ready to replace our 15 year old trusty VW Golf GTD. We're not going fully EV yet but we think a hybrid seems to be the way to go. We've been narrowing our choices down to this model ..... and will we buy a white one ?......

...... or this speccy yellow?

-- or some other colour entirely? Stay posted on this one.

We've had a short stay in Sydney this week - checking out car dealerships and enjoying a night out at the theatre, along with other things .........

On Tuesday night we met up with Gabrielle for an early dinner at Bayly's Bistro at our fave Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli. We saw a David Williamson play "The Social Ladder" after dinner and enjoyed the humour, social commentary and deft one liners typical of this playwright. I led Rob down to the Ensemble Theatre the long way but at least we could enjoy the refined real estate viewing along the streets of this harbourside suburb in the process. 

Walking home after our night out, along Coogee Bay Road we got this brilliant view of tonight's red moon. Perfect timing (completely unplanned) on our part!

Wednesday we set out to visit the new $800 + million Sydney Fish Market in Blackwattle Bay, Glebe (on an adjacent wharf to the old markets). We took the Light Rail from Randwick to Central and from Central to Wentworth Park, an easy trip but crowded on this day. It's a short walk from the Light Rail stop to the site of the new market.

We were very impressed with this awesome seafood destination with over 40 retail outlets offering every variation on a seafood theme. 

That sashimi grade Bluefin Tuna in the pic below is for sale at $299.99/kilo!

But there is a big range of food on offer - and price points.

Sashimi grade abalone anyone?

An amazing array of nigiri at Getfish (we have a Getfish outlet in Coogee too).....

There are beautiful dessert options too: gelati at the Cow & the Moon and these wonderful dark chocolate dipped fresh figs from Fruitezy (I was over the moon about these).

There are cooking classes available, tours and obviously more formal lecture programs too. The young people gathered for this lecture looked to be post high school age???

With all that choice we ended up with some beautiful quality sushi (!) eaten in a quiet little corner we found at the back of this huge retail space. It was way too hectic for us today to find a sit down space to eat one of the more elevated lunch offerings.

On the way back to Coogee we got off at the Pyrmont Bay Light Rail stop and enjoyed a cooling ale at the historic old Pyrmont Bridge Hotel .......

... before making our way down to the Pyrmont Ferry back to Circular Quay.

It has been a few years since we've been around this wharf area. I enjoyed seeing the old Cape Bowling Green Lighthouse (from the Great Barrier Reef) relocated to this position back in 1987, probably the last time we were around Pyrmont Wharf).

...and the old HMB Endeavour Replica ......

The ferry ride from Pyrmont to Circular Quay is a total joy!!

And it was nice to see the stately old Queen Mary 2 berthed at the overseas passenger terminal rather than the more hulking modern monstrosities that are usually parked there.

Despite the clouds we did our usual coastal walk yesterday morning before heading back to Canberra. We always love checking out the current state of our (Coogee) Honeycomb each visit.

Abi is 14

This girl has just had her fourteenth birthday and what an amazing young person she is growing into ...... 

.. the absolute BEST horse owner/ jumper we know - living her best life with Sammy, and the rest of the family right behind her, supporting her passion .......

She's a natural born teacher, a great martial artist, a bit of a rev head (like her Dad), making great progress at school now she's in year nine, and did I mention she's an absolute character as well??

How to sum up all that in one birthday card?

I made her fave batch of cupcakes for the occasion....

.... and we had a great dinner out at "Italian and Sons" last night - where Abi proved her true carnivore worth!

... and dessert afterwards at Goodberry's Belconnen (Abi's choice of course).

We're so lucky to have known this girl for the last 14 years. Happy birthday Abi girl!

And a postscript to those celebrations:

Sammy scored well with Abi's birthday too - new noise cancelling ear bonnets, a new saddle blanket and a new leather halter too - all very fancy ready for the next show! 

He's even got a new fly mask too, extra hard for horses to remove it is said (we'll see). Abi and Sammy tried out all the new birthday gear yesterday afternoon out at Freshford. Sammy seemed to like everything!

Girls with their horses + a grazing kangaroo in the background.