Bush capital

On the first official day of Spring we had a lunch date with friends in Canberra. Our hosts, Bob and Lindy live with their alpacas, and various members of their extended family at Pialligo, Canberra's only rural suburb.

Bob and Lindy keep their alpacas as pets these days. They're a well known and loved marker on Beltana Road for cars on their way to the Pialligo plant nurseries and apple orchards.

It was a special occasion because Bob and Lindy were unveiling their newly renovated chicken shed.......

 Lindy's family have owned the property since the 1950s, but prior to that the property was heavily into egg production for the rapidly growing bush capital. Their shed showcases one of the original chicken feed mixers (as well as some beautiful timber roof trusses and rustic timber flooring).

The property is a 5 minute walk from Canberra's beautiful new international airport and a bare 10 minute drive from where we live in Campbell - our bush capital indeed!

it's been almost a decade now since we were doing our bit as principals of Canberra schools and while we've all been busy doing other things since then we still catch up regularly over lunch and a glass of wine. But Bob and Lindy's lunch in celebration of the chicken shed has been a real highlight.

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!!

More on Art

Thanks to some exceptionally talented people in our family (and who they know) we've had two wonderful Arts experiences this week.

The first was a visit to this most amazing house - still under construction - on a country estate not far out of Canberra (only 10 minutes drive from M & R's). Maxie is standing next to a small bridge to the adjacent wheelhouse on the lake. The waterwheel creates the energy used in powering the spit roaster taking pride of place in the wheelhouse!

 The house is built over a lake! 

 With stunning, north facing lake views from every room in the house.

Claire has been working on a special commission to create large scale landscape paintings behind toughened glass panels that will line the enormous double shower wall in the master bathroom of this amazing house. She's completed the painting now and the first of the glass panels is ready to be placed in position. It's absolutely stunning (although very hard to get a good pic in this intense light and shade)!!

And then, on Friday Claire arranged a lunchtime visit from the Gundaroo based artist John Forrester-Clack, who brought a collection of his drawings for our viewing delight. John is best known for his portraits of the human head - and was a finalist in the prestigious Dobell drawing prize in 2011 and 2012.

We enjoyed lunch with John very much, talking about growing up in Wales, studying in London and life as an artist in the Canberra region. Of course we could not resist purchasing some works (with great generosity by M &R)! 

I think that John's work, like Claire's, is amazing. Like all artists they deserve greater recognition and a much easier pathway in life than they currently have - Artists, writers and musicians give so much richness to our lives but so many don't enjoy a materially rich life in return unfortunately.

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!

That time of the year

Ros and Pete usually visit us in Canberra at this time of the year for our Mum's birthday. We've kept up the tradition this year even though dear old Mum is no longer with us (RIP Betty K - bless her).

We were able to spend a lot of time together over the past three days, although the threat of an imminent sniffle or cough meant some of us had to absent ourselves at times.

There were ten us of us for dinner last night here at the apartment. Ollie and Angus are looking so tall and grown up now......

It's so good to see Maxie out and about and able to socialise - most stylish girl in the oncology ward - indeed most stylish girl anywhere!

Darling Ella and Abi had to pull out at the last minute because of the risk of infection, but still managed to deliver their handmade dessert: gluten free cupcakes, chocolate fudge and fresh berries - all made by Ella and Abi (and Jody). We MISSED THEM so much at our family dinner!!

It was Mum's actual birthday today (103 years ago). We woke to a spectacular sunrise...

...and made our way up to the bushland at the base of Mt Ainslie, amongst the kangaroos, cockatoos and Mum's beloved magpies...................

where we carefully spread Mum's ashes around the base of this very elegant Scribbly gum......... in loving memory of this fearless and remarkable woman......

RIP Betty K from your three "girls" and all the members (and partners) of your beautiful extended family.

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